Metallic Temptations
by Winter Winks 221
Summary: The classic story retold through a clockwork cricket's eyes... (Written as a request for retromania)
1. Chapter 1

In a small Italian village past a dark and lonely graveyard, and resting limply on the north of the village, across a river and separated from the rest of the town, was a small, lonely house. It was not an unpleasant house, however as it had pear trees growing in the garden. They were often vibrant, and gave the garden a pleasant smell when they were ripe.

However, it is winter in 1923, and the pears are past their season. Branches are hanging heavy with snow, and silence usurps the garden, save for a church bell ringing in the distance, and the wind howling its grievances. The night is long, and the darkness stretches and seeps into every nook and cranny outside, and thick ashen clouds bringing snow in hinder the pretty stars from watching what went on in that strange little house that cold December night...

"By the Blue Fairy's cogs- where is that spanner gone?" A voice echoes from inside the lonely old shack. A man of about 60 years of age hunts his workbench for his missing tool. He pauses to scratch his head, and looks once around the room. Finding nothing of his prized spanner, he shifts aside papers containing blueprints, measurements, calculations and sketches. He taps one finger on his ear lobe in thought, before stooping to check underneath.

"I must have that spanner! It must be here- I have to fix his arm a bit more..." He mutters to himself.

On the workbench, sits a beautiful robot made of fine gold metal. Gepetto had fashioned the Gabriel of automatons into a little boy. His blue eyes, fashioned from lights, stare at the wall. He lies limp, and his right arm hangs dangerously loose, where the old man had been tweaking it after an error in size.

For you see, Gepetto longed to be a father. He had been popular with the ladies in his youth, and he even found one he fell in love with, and her name was Natalie. The two had been engaged, but, in a twist of tragedy, she died of pneumonia as a nurse across in France. Heartbroken, he had never considered marrying again. Now, he was busy crafting a little companion to keep himself from getting lonely, even if he couldn't talk. But, looking back on that night, cold and bitter as it was, it was one of those nights I observed that there was a sense of warmth in the house.

Who am I, might you ask? My name is Crick, and I am a toy. I am alive- or at the very least, I can move my limbs without the need for winding.

Forty years ago, Gepetto created me as one of his earliest projects- a clockwork cricket. I was the only success in the first batch of five clockwork toys he created, and I have lived here for many years since.

He may have created me, but the Blue Fairy, the Patron Saint of Inventors, granted me the ability to live on every night there is a blue moon with no winding of my key needed. This reason I shall delve into later, for this is not my place to tell it.

But tonight, the blue moon and a wishing star are to be adjacent very soon.


	2. Chapter 2

As the clock outside strikes ten, Gepetto stops tinkering with his creation and yawns loudly.

"Come on, Simone and Cynzia." He says sleepily. "Time for bed." A tortoise and a bulldog crawl from under the workbench and slowly make their way towards their master's bed. Simone is a male tortoise. He was afraid of a lot of things, and he is especially afraid of tea, numbers and the colour yellow.

However, ever since he became Gepetto's pet, he is very loyal, and is there for him when life sometimes was too much for the eccentric inventor.

Cynzia, on the other hand, is a very friendly dog, but very silly and childlike. She sniffs everything, from tea bags to robot oil. She is a tan bulldog with white patches - her most notable being a patch shaped like a crescent moon, which is part of the reason why she has been named Cynzia, the other reason being that she is like a child, and the moon represents children.

I watch as Cynzia struggles onto the old man's bed whilst Simone slowly prodded into a cardboard box at the foot of Gepetto's bedside table.

"Starlight, Starbright, first star I see tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight." Gepetto closes his eyes tightly and makes a wish. I know what he wants- he wants a son ever so badly. "I still have hope, Cynzia." He says to his faithful friend, who glances at him quizzically.

He turns out the light and settles down to sleep, along with Simone and Cynzia.

...

I am not alone.

I stare at the striking eyes of a beautiful maiden. Her dress is long, and covers her feet. Her skirt is decorated with bright lights, and her bodice is crafted into swirls of copper and platinum. Her white hair tumbles down her back and hugs her neck, from which a long silver necklace is draped round her neck, with a light bulb dangling from it. Her gold and leather belt sits in bold comfort round her hips and from it hangs a rod of plaited cables. On one end is a charger input, which she plugs into the robot's nose.

All at once the gold robot jerks to life, and is amazed to find that he is alive.

"I can move!" He exclaimed. "I can talk!"

"Yes you can, little boy made of metal." She proclaims.

"Does this mean I am a real boy?" He asks excitedly.

"No, it doesn't. In order to be a real boy, you must prove to be brave, truthful and unselfish, and I shall fully grant your father's wish. To help you on your quest, I shall provide you with a conscience."

She turns to me. "Do you think you will be capable of helping our young friend here become a real boy?" She asks me, softly.

I don't answer her, because I cannot- I am awestruck by her radiance and her beauty. Plus, I have always been unable to talk with my mouth.

Suddenly, I feel my mouth move, almost of its own accord. I have no idea what is happening, but I find myself saying; "Yes my lady, I shall help this young boy learn how to be good."

She smiles at me. "One more thing," and she hands me a beautiful gold wind up key. "This enables you to walk without winding, Mr...

"I just go by Crick, Miss." I tell her politely.

"Very well, Mr Crick. Look after him, and remember, make wise decisions both of you!"

And with that, she disappears into the night.

I look at my side where my key is and to my delight, I find that the new key she gifted me was now there, replacing my old, stiff awkward one.

"So, son," I say "it's time we had a little talk."

The robot stares at me, and then he smiles a friendly smile- one full of innocence and purity.


	3. Chapter 3

By the time the little clockwork child has asked me 'why?' for a millionth time this night, I feel…strange- a mixture of emotions, to be precise. Emotions….that I am experiencing for the first time.

Most prominently, joy and pride for caring for and mentoring an innocent little being that will soon learn the ways of the world that I have once observed.

I also feel a little frustrated as he asks me so many questions, and so many 'whys' that my gears in my head and legs combined cannot keep up with his curiosity.

The Blue Fairy has not only gifted me mobility, but I am also gifted to feel and experience raw emotion- an unusual gift for a being who is made of metal.

But she had granted Pinocchio life, and anyone who can give the gift of life is not to be doubted.

"Well…" I hesitate, in response to him asking the fiendishly difficult of why he is alive. "I do not know. Life, or what I know of it, is very hard to understand."

"Why?"

"It just is. You would be best to ask your father. He is no philosopher, but he has had a very good understanding of life."

"Who is my father? What is a father, sir?"

"I have said you can call me 'Crick,'… _son_." I test this word carefully, and gaze up into his bright, piercing blue gaze. "Your father…wait a moment, a father is…." I pause, inking over the matter carefully, before I answer him.

"A father is a man who builds you, sets you up for life's hardest challenges and ensures you go to school and work hard in order to become hard working and useful in the future, once you are an adult. And as for _your_ father, he is over in that corner." I nod towards the bed, where he lies fast asleep, snoring with Cynzia snuggling close to her master.

"Why isn't he alive?" Pinocchio asks innocently.

I start for a moment, and I almost feel my cogs jar out of place in shock, until I realise what he means.

"He is alive. He's just sleeping at the moment- but he will awaken when dawn comes."

I may only be a clockwork cricket, but I know my master's comings and goings as well as Simone and Cynzia do.

"What's sleeping?"

I sigh- this is going to be a long, long night.

"Sleeping is what humans do every night, so they feel refreshed in the morning." I explain, but when I see him opening his mouth to ask the dreaded question again, I decide to navigate away from the matter for good.

"So, Miss Fairy," I ask, turning to the lovely maiden- who has since returned here, and is now standing by Gepetto's workbench- suppressing amusement at my plight. "What exactly do I do?"

"You shall guide young Pinocchio on his journey, Mr Crick." She tells me. "It is for the sake of young Pinocchio's future that you do so." She turns to my newly assigned charge. "I do have another gift to give, Pinocchio- but you must earn it first." She tells him, with a smile.

The little gold robot's eyes flash with curiosity, and he shuffles forward expectantly.

"You must prove that you are brave, morally sagacious, and unselfish." The Blue Fairy informs him. "Mr Crick will act as your conscience- he will help you learn from your mistakes, and shall you be deemed worthy, I shall change you into a real boy."

"A real boy- you mean it?" Pinocchio exclaims with joy clapping his hands ecstatically- in an oddly similar way to how Gepetto claps when he has achieved a goal, or finished a new invention.

"Yes- a real boy, Pinocchio- you shall be a youth of great beauty, and combined with your moral and academic knowledge, you will go far in the world. But," She adds, adopting a stern, warning tone. "…should you fail, you shall remain a little boy made of gold forever."

"Oh please no!" Pinocchio exclaimed. "I shall be ever so good, Miss Fairy! Please, please!"

"I know you will succeed. I have faith in you," Smiled the fairy, benevolently. "You will be given three chances to prove your worth, Pinocchio. Please do not waste those chances, for so few are as fortunate as thee."

"I wouldn't!" Chirps the little gold boy, his heels clanking together as he jumps and dances in joy. I quickly shush him before he wakes Gepetto, Cynzia and Simone.

"So, what I have to do?"

"Learn Pinocchio," the Blue Fairy informs him. "That is all you have to do. Learn between right and wrong, and how to make decisions according to a strict moral code."

"Do I have to?" He whines, and I feel alarmed at the possibility of failure being closer than I could have imagined.

"You must, or you will not become a real young boy of flesh and blood." The fairy tells him. "I know you can do it, Pinocchio…."

And like that, she disappears, melting into the air that she had been standing not too long ago.


End file.
